Qatari Diar signs $42.5 mln contract with US firms

Qatari Diar and Qatar Railways Co signed a five-year, $42.5 million contract with U.S. firms Parsons International and Aecom to manage the construction of a light rail transit system, a statement issued late Wednesday said.
The Lusail Light Rail system will serve Qatar’s Lusail City development, a 38 km project north of Doha and Qatar’s largest domestic real estate project. It will feature 30 km of track, 24 stations, service depots and a viaduct, the statement said.
The Lusail Light Rail Transit System is part of a larger planned $40 billion integrated railway system in Qatar that will consist of long distance, metro and freight railway.
The $9.1 billion, 350 km national rail network is expected to be completed by 2017. A $27 billion metro system serving the capital city Doha is expected to be finished in 2025.
Qatari Diar, the property arm of the Gulf state’s sovereign wealth fund, counts London’s Chelsea Barracks among its most high-profile overseas assets. It was set up in December 2004 to support Qatar’s economic development, mainly in real estate.
(Reporting by Regan E. Doherty; Editing by Dinesh Nair)